EdSe 3204 - General Instructional Methods Fall 2004: Dr. Helen Mongan-Rallis

Understanding Students Assignment

Describe what you will do to learn about your students and how you might use this information to help you in your teaching of these students. The format of this assignment is up to you. I recommend that you work on this assignment in groups (at least in pairs, but best not to do with more than 2 others). You assignment may include:

a description of strategies you will use to get to know students in your class
actual examples of surveys you might administer to your students
actual examples of survey or letter you might send home to parents/guardians/concerned adults in the students' lives to help you understand the students and their families
resources for learning about students (include those you found in your Internet search)

Example:

Janelle Halverson (EdSe 3204 Fall 2004)

Format for presenting:

Develop this as a section for your professional portfolio (called "Understanding Students." Have it be presented in a way that will be helpful:

in guiding you when you are teaching and looking for tips and strategies
to a person/committee who might be interviewing you for a teaching position. Thus provide an introductory paragraph/annotation to each artifact, explaining the purpose of each, how you might use it, and possibly what this tells about your beliefs as a teacher.

In order to prepare for this assignment you should:

Read Chapter 4 of class text.
Talk to your cooperating teacher as well as other teachers about how they get to know their students and learn their names. In particular, talk to a special education teacher and school counselor to get ideas from them on what kinds of things you should be finding out about students and how you might best go about this.
Do a search of the Internet to see what tips you can pick up.

Follow-up tips based on in-class discussion:

I said I would send out a reminder about my verbal responses to questions raised in class on Oct 20th about this assignment:
I know that a number of you are unable to go to your apprenticeship site this week prior to the assignment due date(various reasons); also, if you want to take photos of classrooms (to show examples of rooms that reflect an understanding of students), neighborhoods (as visual "survey" results of the environment in which students live -- as a way to understand their lives), then this is going to take you a while. I anticipate that you will be adding to your assignment over the whole semester (and your life!).

What I want you to turn in on Oct. 25th is whatever you have so far, along with your self-grade of how you are doing at this point. I welcome you to revise this later, either because you have things you would like to add to it, or because you want to respond to feedback I give you (or both!).

Remember: when you turn in your assignment, I would like an accompanying paragraph annotation that gives your assignment grade along with your supporting reasons for earning this grade. You may use the criteria we discussed in class, or expand on these/change these to reflect more closely your own goals. When I give you feedback I will address both the assignment and your criteria (so you are learning many things here: the content & skills of the assignment, how to create grading criteria aligned with the purpose of the assignment, and how to self-evaluate).

Also remember, just as with your peer teaching, I want you to keep in mind your beliefs about students as you develop your framework for what YOU will do to try to understand them. Have fun with this assignment!

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